Panhandle is located northeast of Amarillo toward Pampa on US 60, where it is the seat of Carson County.

By the 1980s Panhandle thrived as a regional marketing and shipping center for wheat, cattle, and petroleum products.

The Carson County Square House Museum, in Pioneer Park on Hwy 207, is considered one of the nation's finest small museums. Centered around the 1887 Square House, a small wooden frame residence with a rooftop captain's walk, the museum complex also features pioneer implements, a Santa Fe caboose, a half-dugout, and a memorial exhibition dedicated to man's quest for freedom. The Square House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1990 the population was 2,353.